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The coffee was good, neighbors say, until the unexpected last drop.Photo: Change.org

How much influence does Starbucks wield with landlords, who generally consider the coffee chain to be an ideal tenant? In the case of One Fordham Plaza, it's allegedly sufficient enough to have the office complex's management go and tell the guy at the small newsstand in the back of the building's lobby to stop selling hot drinks, apparently to make things smoother for the newly opened street-level Starbucks. The unnamed lobby operation has been serving cheap coffee for years, and while no official explanation has been provided, a lawyer who works at the building says the kiosk's owner told her business has been down 80 percent since he was given the order June 13.

Starbucks released a statement saying it never sets any rules for who can and cannot sell coffee nearby its stores, and it in fact "welcomes competition." (Just presumably not Dumb Starbucks.) Self-proclaimed friends of the newsstand have set up a petition, in the meantime, to help get this guy his nondairy creamer and wood stirrers back once and for all.